Abstract

CO₂ removal is necessary to mitigate the effects of global warming but it is a challenging process to separate CO₂ from natural gas, biogas, and other gas streams. Development of hybrid membranes by use of polymers and metal-organic framework (MOF) particles is a viable option to overcome this challenge. A ZIF-7 nano-filler that was synthesized in our lab was embedded into a designed polymer matrix at various loadings and the performance of the mixed matrix membranes was evaluated in terms of gas permeance and selectivity. Hybrid membranes with various loadings (20, 30 and 40 wt%) were developed and tested at room temperature by a custom made time lag equipment and a jump in selectivity was observed when compared with the pristine polymer. A commercially attractive region for the selectivity CO₂ over CH₄ was achieved with a selectivity of 39 for 40 wt% particle loading. An increase in selectivity was observed with the increase of ZIF-7 loadings. Best performance was seen at 40% ZIF-7 loaded membrane with an ideal selectivity of 39 for CO₂ over CH₄. The obtained selectivity was 105% higher for CO₂ over CH₄ than the selectivity of the pristine polymer with a slight decrease in permeance. Morphological characterization of such developed membranes showed an excellent compatibility between the polymer and particle adhesion.

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